Crimson Butterfly
by DiscordantSymphony
Summary: Who is Ada Wong? Is that even her real name? What started out as a simple job would take the mysterious woman down a long road, and she might not like what she finds at the end of it...no secrets can stay buried forever and Project K is almost complete.
1. Chapter 1

Crimson Butterfly

Chapter One.

The Chinese woman tapped her foot against the floor of the hotel room in irritation as she waited for her employer to get in touch, it wasn't as if she was unaccustomed to waiting for orders but she still had no idea as to what this new job was supposed to be. The location was good at least, her job took her to new places but she always loved Rome.

Her communicator beeped and the woman answered it with a flick of her wrist. "It's not polite to keep a lady waiting you know?" She said with her usual teasing grin and tone but it didn't really matter as it wasn't like she could guess the other person's reaction, the screen only showed a logo that looked like a crystal pyramid on a black background.

"Miss Wong, we've been reliably informed of your talents and we have a job for you if you would care to accept it." The voice was heavily distorted by some sort of software, an amateur move as she could easily clear up the speaker's voice if she really wanted to.

"I don't take a job without knowing all the details first." Ada said as she sat down on her hotel room bed.

"Are you familiar with the pharmaceutical cooperation Seashell?" The voice asked and Ada suddenly found herself heavily frowning.

Seashell...

That had been one of the companies that she knew that Wesker had been in contact with after Umbrella fell, for a while it seemed as if he would ally with them but he had defied her expectations and had sided with Tricell, she didn't like being wrong at the best of times and she certainly didn't like being wrong when it came to Wesker.

"I've...heard of them." Ada decided not to let to much of her knowledge out.

"We have reason to believe that Seashell is currently is the business of developing Bio-Organic Weapons, we would like you to infiltrate one of Seashell's labs in Rome and gather as much date as possible." It suddenly hit Ada who she actually working for and she couldn't help but smirked, amused with how things had worked out.

"Miss Wong, do you accept?" The voice asked.

"I would be more than happy to accept, send me all the intel you can and get back in touch in twenty-four hours." Ada said and didn't wait for a reply as she switched the communicator off.

"So, the BSAA's hiring out huh?" It was almost pathetic how they were trying to hide their identify, once again they were like little children trying to play a grown up's game.

She couldn't fault their logic however, by using an independent agent they could get the information they needed without having to dirty their own hands as they didn't want GPC breathing down their neck about abusing their power.

Her communicator pinged to tell her she had an email but she would look at it later, she really wanted a shower.

End of Chapter one

 **(I know that this is really short guys but just bare with me as it is just the start, if you could leave a review and maybe a follow or a favourite then that would be great.)**


	2. Chapter 2

Crimson Butterfly

Chapter Two

The Seashell Medical Research and Development complex looked like something out of a bad eighties movie that was trying to make a building look futuristic but actually only made it look horribly dated, steel and glass towers that seemed to stretch up for ages and had tacky slanted rooftops and a courtyard that was filled with abstract statues and fountains.

It was definitely not to Ada's taste so she just wanted to finish this mission and get out of here as soon as possible.

Thankfully, it didn't take her too long to infiltrate the facility as the information provided by the BSAA was fairly on point, detailed blueprints and information of the security systems, a piece of software that would get her past any locked doors, it was all very complete.

It was almost too good. Something was going on here and Ada suddenly had the feeling she was just a pawn in larger game.

And Ada Wong wasn't anyone's pawn.

So she did infiltrate the facility but not to find out wither or not Seashell was actually manufacturing Bio-logical weapons she was here because she wanted to find out what hell was going on.

She decided to get in through the roof, thankfully her hookshot and a window cleaner's carriage made it easy for her to get up there but even that felt wrong, the windows didn't looked like they had been cleaned recently and once again she got the feeling like it had been purposely left for her.

The security wasn't anything to write home about, a few guards who were easily disposed of by a sharp blow to the back of the head and the security systems were easily dealt with by the software she had brought.

It was just too easy, she reached her destination which was the office of complex's chief administrator. Amateurs who were new to this sort of job would go straight to the labs or try and fined the chief researcher's office to find information but it was always wiser to go for the administrator, nothing happened in this place without mounds of paperwork after all.

The door was made of solid oak which would require a lot of force to break down but thankfully it was unlocked and she could just walk in, as she did Ada shock her head, the people who organised this little game must've thought that was a blind fool if she wouldn't notice all that was wrong with this picture.

She did wonder who was actually behind this, it wasn't the BSAA, they might not be her number one fans but they at least knew the major details of what went down in China and that it wasn't her who organised those attacks. No, the BSAA was just another pawn in someone else's game, most likely they had agents in both Seashell and the BSAA organising this.

In her life Ada had gained a lot of enemies but she couldn't think of one who the assets or the money needed to pull something like this off. Simmons or Wesker maybe but they were both dead and while in her line of work it wasn't always a given they would stay that way she was fairly confidant that she had seen the last of both of them.

Ada shook her head and decided not to worry about it right now, the only way she would find out who was behind this would be by going forward and when she did find whoever it was...

They would learn the price of playing games with Ada Wong and losing.

She sauntered over to the large wooden desk and turned on his computer, it required a password of course but her information package had included the passwords of all noteworthy members of staff. Once it logged on she connected her communicator to the computer with a lead and uploaded a program which would search through his files and download anything that would mention her name.

It was a slow process so she decided to read through the brown folders which laid on the administrator's desk, the first one wasn't anything important just paperwork of someone requesting to be transferred to another facility, she thought the second folder might be useful when she was it contained budget records but it was mainly just documenting construction of new facilities and bathrooms.

The third folder was different, it was much more bulky and written across it in bold black letters was:

 **PROJECT K FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.**

Ada once again got the feeling that someone somewhere was playing a joke on her and she didn't like it, she picked up the folder delicately and began to flip through the papers inside.

The first two pages were full of scientific mumbo jumbo that she really didn't understand so she simply skipped past them, what was on the third page made her gasp and nearly made her drop the folder.

 _"Leon..."_ She thought wistfully as she stared down at the glossy photograph in the folder.

He looked good in the picture, most of the times Ada saw him he was dressed in tactical gear or body armour. She didn't think she had ever seen him in normal clothes but in the picture he was wearing a long coat to protect him from the autumn chill, the multi-coloured leaves in the background attested to when the photo was taken, a long scarf protect his neck and he was wearing jeans so tight they should've been illegal.

Ada didn't know what her feelings to Leon really were, it was simpler and easier for her to deal with if she just said that she cared about him but she knew as she looked down at the photo and those intense feelings came rushing back that just caring about him wasn't the right way to describe it, deep down she knew what the word she was looking for was but she was scared to admit to it.

If she did, than that meant that there was still a part of her that was human.

She looked at the page next to the picture and found her breath catch in her throat, it was a surveillance report. They were watching Leon, they were watching her Leon!

 _Hers?_

Ada didn't have time to ponder that thought and what it meant as her communicator pinged meaning that the download had finished, she discontented it and shut down the computer. It was time to get out of here but she was just taking the info.

She was taking the folder as well and then she was going to arrange a flight to DC.

 _"I think it's time I see you again Mister Kennedy."_

End of Chapter Two.

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	3. Chapter 3

Crimson Butterfly

Chapter Three

The flight to DC had been long and boring but Ada had finally arrived and was now ready to find out why there had been pictures of Leon in that file and what the hell Project K even was. To say she was worried was an understatement, whoever was behind this had knowledge of her and her...affection for Leon and they were able to monitor a high-ranking government agent without him noticing.

This was bad, she had run through her minds of all the possible suspects and the only one that she could think of who had the resources and the power to pull something like this off was the family but she wasn't sure why they would try anything as Derek was the one who had been obsessed with her and considering he had been wasting resources in trying to recreate her she imagined that family wouldn't be too broken up about his death.

Right now she to focus on how she was going to approach Leon, she was good but she wouldn't be able to keep herself hidden from him forever not that she wasn't confidant in her skills but Leon had gotten better ever since he was made a government agent, he would know if someone was watching him.

Eventually she decided that she needed to approach him head on, she knew from her contacts that she had watching him that he always took a walk to the park which was located three point five miles to the south of his apartment, Leon was a man of routine and thus it didn't surprise her when she found him in the park, standing on a bridge that went over a small river.

He was dressed in a brown overcoat and had a blue scarf wrapped around his neck, he hadn't shaved in a couple of days and there was fair build up of blond stubble on his chin, his blue eyes were looking down to the river below and his pink lips were pressed together in a thin line.

She sauntered over to the bridge and placed her arm on his shoulder. "Leon. Long time no see, have you missed me?" She asked as pressed herself closer to him, she could feel his strong muscles underneath her hands.

If Leon was surprised by her appearance than he did not show it, he almost seemed amused by her presence than surprised. "Ada, you and me again? Who would've thought? What are you doing here?"

"Couldn't it be that I've just missed you handsome? Maybe I wanted to see you again, did you ever think of that?" She said, stepping close so her body was pressed against his and she couldn't help but smirk when he heard his catch in his throat, she may have been getting along but it was clear that she still had it.

"Because it is never that simple with you and you never make social calls." Leon said as he leaned in before he pulled back and then stepped away with a sigh. "What do you want Ada?"

Ada sighed and crossed her arms. "What do you know about Seashell?"

Leon's brow furred for a moment before he spoke. "It's a pharmaceutical company, has medical facilities and research labs all over the world, the BSAA and my agency have been suspecting them of developing B.O.W.s for years now but we haven't got any actual physical proof and we can't get just do a surprise inspection because Seashell falls under GPC management which means the U.S can't touch them."

"But the BSAA can't touch them either because if they raid one of their facilities without evidence and they go complaining to the GPC then the blowback on to the BSAA would be enormous." Leon countined as he slid his hands into his jeans. "Why are you asking Ada? Do you know something?"

"Know, I was on a job infiltrating one of their labs for the BSAA. Oh, don't look so surprised, they need to find a way to get around that little problem so hiring an independent agent out makes sense." Ada said and she couldn't help but smile at the look of surprised on Leon's face, he could be such a boy scout sometimes, naïve to the way this game was played even after all this time.

"So, the BSAA wanted you to investigate. did you find anything?" Leon asked as he leaned back against the bridge rail. "Did you inform them?"

"Nothing to suggest that they were devolving B.O.W.s but there was something odd that I found, a folder filled with papers and photographs. I can't read the papers, well I can but I can't understand it, I know a bit about science but it was beyond me but the photos, they were of you. Someone's watching you." Ada said and waited for Leon's reaction.

It wasn't quite what she expected, there was no overt surprise or shock on his features, his eyes simply narrowed until they were nearly slits, he glanced over his shoulder for a moment before turning his head back and speaking in a low whisper. "I know."

Ada raised an eyebrow but she didn't speak, she thought that it was odd that someone could track Leon without him ever noticing them, her brown eyes scanned the treeline to if she could see any signs, any sudden movement, any camera flashs, anything that could suggest there was anyone watching them.

She saw nothing, but that didn't really mean anything in her line of work. She always had to be alert, just because she couldn't see anyone didn't mean no one was there, if she heard a twig break then that could mean there was someone there.

"I've been having the feeling that someone's been watching so I tried to catch them out and did a bug swipe of my apartment." Leon said. "I found two bugs, one in my living room and another in my bedroom. And someone is definitely following me, I've stuck to my routine and left the bugs alone to see if I can catch them but no luck yet."

"It's someone working for Seashell, has to be." Ada pointed out as her lips turned into a thin line, in her line of work she had seen a lot of weird things, it was practically in her job description but this unnerved her, it was too...close, for lack of a better word.

How easily she had broken into the Seashell complex in Rome, how all the access codes the BSAA had given her had worked when often any codes she was given by her employers were often months out of date and of course that folder, Project K, someone was playing with her and she did not like it, at all.

She supposed that some would call it karma, considering the amount of times that she played games with people and manipulated people to get closer to her own objectives but she, at the very least, tried to keep innocent people out of her games, bringing Leon into this wasn't fair, innocent might be to strong a word to describe him but he certainly didn't deserve to get pulled into this because someone had a grudge against her.

"Maybe so but I can't exactly go to my boss and tell him I'm being followed and I think it's a Seashell agent, even if he believed me I haven't got any evidence to back it up, so we can't exactly conduct a raid and for obvious reasons I can't list you as a credible source." Leon pointed out with a smirk.

"I get that, but listen. Tell him that you're being followed and about the bugs, he can put an escort on to you and they can catch them and if you can get whoever it is to crack and tell you who they work for and they do work for Seashell, then you can go to the BSAA and then they'll have a reason to suspect and they might be able to launch a full investigation." Ada pointed out.

Leon was quiet for a moment and the only sound in that moment was the sound of the river running beneath their feet. "I'll ask but the only evidence I've got is the bugs in my apartment and that only proves that someone is listening to me, my boss could've ordered them planted there for all I know, I wouldn't put it past him." He mumbled.

"Why is this so important to you? I don't understand you at all, I don't even know whose side you're on, you're infiltrating companies to find out if there are manufacturing B.O.W.s but you steal samples and put them on the black market." Anger had filled Leon's voice and he took a step towards her. "How many lives were lost because of you? How much blood is on your hands?"

Ada took a step back and closed her eyes before she sighed heavily. "Leon...I know you don't trust me, and that's fine. You shouldn't trust me, I wouldn't. But what I want you to trust, is that I've saved your life before now and that...I won't hurt you, I wouldn't. Just this one time, trust that something strange is going on and I need to get to the bottom of it and I need your help, please."

As soon as it appeared the anger had fled Leon's face, and he let out a sigh of his own and Ada realised that at least a part of it was stress from dealing with the fact that he was being watched though his words did still have a ring of truth to them, a great deal of deaths could be traced back to her.

She stepped forward and pressed her lips to Leon's and that fact he didn't pull away made her happier than she had felt in a very long time, she broke the kiss and before she pulled away she leaned up to whisper in his ear. "Thanks handsome, see you around." And with that she pulled away and hurried off.

As she left she heard Leon chuckle and mutter something under his breath.

* * *

Ada sighed as she wrapped the towel around herself and used another one to dry her hair, she had needed this as she had only just got settled into the hotel room before she rushed out to find Leon and make sure that he was keeping to his schedule. now until she had any more info she could relax a little as well as plan her next move in case Leon came up short.

She had just laid down on the bed and closed her eyes to take a nap when she heard a sharp knock on the door which made her sit up, fully awake as her training had her ready for anything at any moment. "Hello?" She called as she quickly discard her towel and walked over to the hotel room's closet and pulled out a pair of black jeans and a white silk shirt which she quickly began to put on.

"Room service." A voice said on the other side of the door, female, sounded young and honest enough.

"I didn't order any room service." Ada called back as she quickly buttoned her shirt up and put her boots on and quickly grabbed a combat knife from one of her suitcases, she did have to thank Leon as he had shown her that her close combat skills had definitely gotten rusty over the years.

"I've got the order here, Emily Nara, Room 452." The voice said again and Ada frowned, that was the name she had booked in as and it was her room number but she didn't order any room service, she had planned to go for a meal in restaurant later on tonight.

"I didn't order anything, sorry." Ada said as she slowly approached the door while holding the knife tightly. It was a trap, it was obviously a trap.

The woman on the other side of the door was silent for a moment before she spoke again. "Look, could you open the door? I'm supposed to be sent away by the person inside the room, I know it sounds stupid and it is but it's hotel rules, you know?"

Ada had to stop herself from laughing like a mad woman, that was the most pathetic lie she had ever heard from an assassian, where did Seashell find this one, she was a decent enough actress she supposed, she inflicted just the right amount of worry for Ada to think that she was honestly worried about her job.

She wouldn't open the door ordinarily but needed a lead and she knew she couldn't completely count on Leon finding something, she could interrogate this one. "Alright, just give me a sec I'm still getting dressed."

She crept over to the door and stood to the side of it as she unlocked it, she gently pulled on the door's knob and held her breath as it slowly swung open.

A woman with long blond hair stepped through the open doorway, she was a few inchs taller than Ada but that was probably only due to the heels she wore, and while it was subtle there was a clear bit of lean muscle under her uniform, far more than any normal hotel employee should normally have.

But what confirmed that she was in fact an assassin was the fact she held a combat knife, almost exactly like hers.

Ada lunged forward and grabbed the woman by her shoulders and threw her into the side table, the woman crashed in to it with a grunt and looked at Ada with wide eyes which harden and lunged at her raising the knife and then swinging it down at her but Ada managed to block it with her own knife and she then made a slash to the woman's midsection.

The woman pulled back with a hiss and looked down and Ada was disappointed to see that she had only cut through the woman's uniform. The woman shot a glare at her and Ada smirked.

The two women began to circle around one another, neither of them lowered their knives and while she was clearly bad at thinking on her feet Ada had to admit that the woman was clearly good with a knife, her form was nearly perfect. "Why did Seashell send you? What's their grief with me?"

The woman let out a harsh laugh which did not match with her youthful face, her brown eyes were cruel. "Seashell? You think they sent me, no. My employer has been waiting for this, for a long, long time."

"Who are they?" Ada said as the woman stepped forward and she stepped back, her blade raised waiting for the woman to make her move.

"Do you really not know? Oh, then you're in for a very nasty surprise." The woman grinned and took a swing at her, Ada ducked underneath the blade and then tackled her. The woman grunted as the two of them fell to the floor and the knife slipped out of her hands.

Ada quickly adjusted her so she was almost sitting on top of her and punched her in the face, and did it again and again and again and pressed her knife to her throat. "Who sent you? Tell me! Tell me!"

The girl laughed and spat blood on to Ada's face. "You think I'd betray them, they would hurt me in ways you can't imagine!" She gazed into Ada's eyes and her eyes showed no fear. "Do what you want with me, you're already dead."

Ada kept her gaze locked with the other woman before she snarled and cut her throat open, the woman gurgled once, twice and then went still.

Ada sighed, there had been no point in questioning her as she was more scared of her employer than her so any interrogation methods would be infective.

She got up and shut the door to the room so no one would look and then glanced back at the body, she couldn't safely get rid of it. She had to go.

Ada walked over to the bed and began to unpack her suitcases, this was a balancing act now. She had to pack light but she also had to take anything that could be tracked back to her-

She'd just killed someone, she didn't even think about it. Didn't hesitate just did it, like ripping of a bandage. When did she become this? This cold, unfeeling machine.

Ada. Emily. Jessica. Nanako. Sarita. Polly. Clara. Sarah and dozens of other names, countless identities. Which was her real name, she couldn't even remember anymore...

She shook her head and got back to work, thinking about those questions would lead her down an unpleasant road.

And there would be nothing good waiting at the end of it.

End of Chapter Three

* * *

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 **There is a reference to one of my other Resident Evil stories in this chapter, if you find it you win a cookie!**


	4. Chapter 4

Crimson Butterfly

Chapter Four

Ada was currently sat in the booth of a small dinner after leaving the hotel and was watching the rain beating on the window, the sun was setting and it was quite a pretty sight. She was dressed in a dark grey hoodie with a while shirt and blue jeans and white sneakers. Hardly her most usual attire but it was a matter of necessity, she didn't want to draw attention to herself at the moment as she figured out what to do now.

Most likely someone had discovered the body of the assassin in her hotel room and had called the police, she had done everything that she could to deal with any fingerprints but most likely she had left at least one or two somewhere but that wasn't too much of a problem. She had worked hard at making sure her fingerprints had never been registered in any database.

The problem was that she had been seen checking into the hotel room and the desk clerk could easily describe her and they had a name, not her real name or even Ada Wong but they did have Emily Nara and those were the only credit cards she had on hand to her at the moment and in terms of actual cash that she had on her at this exact moment, it was only a little over a thousand.

She wasn't someone who unaware of it's value but in the position she was in at the moment it wasn't very much, she could use it to buy her way out of the country if she had too but she couldn't, she needed to find out what was going on, who had sent that assassin after her and whoever was following Leon they had to be connected and if she was in danger then Leon was in danger and that thought did not sit well with her.

The rest of her belongings, what she had decided to take at any rate, were in a large black backpack under the table and her phone was in her pocket, she had a few contacts she could call on to give her a hand she was just trying to figure out what her plan of action was now, she was hoping that Leon would get back to her about any info and then she would go from there. That plan wasn't going to hold up until she found a new place to stay.

Also, she had a derringer stuck up her sleeve, it only held two bullets but she wasn't planning to get into a shoot out, it was just a backup plan in case she needed it.

Ada glanced away from the window when she heard footsteps approaching, a woman in sixties with a head of silver grey hair and dressed in a pink waitress's uniform approached with a small note pad in her hand and a pen tucked behind her ear, it looked like something out a TV show so much that it took all Ada had not to laugh in the poor woman's face. "What you having dear?"

"A small coffee and a piece of pie, thanks." Ada said, she supposed it would look a little odd if she stayed without ordering anything, they were other people in the dinner and all of them had food or at least something to drink. At this exact moment, sticking out was the last thing that she wanted to do.

"We do apple, cherry, peach or blackberry." The woman replied as she slid the pencil out from behind her and tapped it against the notepad in her hand.

"Cherry." Ada responded and the woman scribbled it down, with a smile she turned and walked away and in a few moments she returned with a plate which held a single slice of cheery pie and a steaming mug of coffee, once she placed them down on the table and Ada handed her a five dollar note she walked off.

Ada sighed and lift the mug to her lips and took a sip of the coffee, it was hardly the best coffee she had ever drunk but it was perfectly serviceable and the fog that clouded her mind seemed to lift a little and she was able to think a little more clearly now.

There was suddenly a sound of static and she looked up to see that TV mounted above the counter flickered on to life, the waitress behind the bar, a young red-haired woman, smiled apologetically as she placed the large black television remote.

As Ada finished her coffee as the static on the screen cleared up and showed a woman dressed in a grey suit holding a microphone and standing in front of the hotel that Ada had checked into she realised with a start, she pushed the plate holding the pie away and reached down to pick up the backpack and put it on before she stood up slowly but surely began to make her way to the door of the dinner as the woman began to speak.

"I am standing in front of the Hamilton Hotel in DC where just moments ago the body of a woman was found in room 452, her throat was slit open. No arrests have yet been made but the woman who was found in the room was not the woman who checked in." The reporter spoke and Ada was half way towards the door, she cursed herself for not picking a booth that was not close to an exit, that was a rookie mistake.

"The woman who booked the room, Emily Nara, is nowhere to be found and is being considered a suspect by the police." The woman continued and Ada could almost reach out and touch the door but she couldn't at the reporter continued on. "Here is a sketch of Miss Nara, if you see her then please contact the police immediately as she is considered to be extremely dangerous."

Suddenly the diner was completely silent and Ada could hear rustling behind her like several people were turning in their chairs and a few were getting out of their chairs, fuck. Since when were police sketch artists good at their jobs?! She carried on walking and grabbed hold of the handle of the door but as soon as she touched it a large meaty hand fell on her thigh.

"Now just hold on there a minute darling." A deep southern voice spoke firmly and Ada looked over shoulder to see a trucker looking at her, he nodded his head towards the TV where the sketch was show on full screen. "It's a pretty good likeness don't you think? How about you and me sit down while we wait for the police?"

She could hear people muttering their ascent for that plan and out of the corner of her eye she noticed the younger red haired waitress heading towards the phone, obviously going to call the police. Ada let her hand slip away from the door handle...and then slammed it open palmed directly into the trucker's face, she could hear and feel the cartilage and the bone snap under her hand and the man feel backwards with a noise that sounded halfway between a grunt and scream and as soon as he let go off her arm she darted out of the dinner into the pouring rain.

As she rain through the downpour she didn't even both to put her hood up, it would just cost her time and considering she could hear shouting and footsteps behind her. Mob mentality, it didn't surprise but it did disappoint her. She ducked and dodged in between the people on the street and thankfully her pursuers were nowhere near as graceful as she was so she was able to keep ahead of them.

There was an alleyway coming up and Ada ducked into it but she didn't stop, there was a fire escape with the ladder hanging tantalisingly out of reach, ran towards it and jumped of the wall it was mounted on, her hands just managed to curl around the bottom rung of the ladder and she quickly pulled herself up on to the metal grating.

She ran up the stairs of the fire escape all the way to the roof, by the time she had reached the roof the people who were following her and had only just managed to pull the ladder of the fire escape down. She ran the large roof of the building and leapt for the fire escape of the second building, an apartment building, she misjudged her leap and metal ledge of the fire escape slammed into her gut and her breath escaped her lungs in a strangled grunt.

She would've fallen to the wet cement below and shattered every bone in her body if all her years of training in ignoring pain and shock hadn't come in to play and she managed to keep her hold on the ledge and lifted herself over and laid panting on the metal grate, she knew that she had to keep moving but her legs were burning with all the effort she had put in, she still needed to catch her breath and considering the tenderness of her a few ribs were more than likely cracked at best or broken at worst.

Keeping one arm around her middle to stop any movement from jolting her ribs she reached up with her other arm and grabbed hold of the ledge and pulled herself up with a whimper, god this hurt! She had been in pain before, there were days when the claw mark scars on her arm still burned and the jagged scar on her side that she gained when the Tyrant in Birkin's underground laboratory back in Raccoon City had thrown her into the computer console had never really stopped hurting.

But this was a fresh pain and at the moment it killed, but as much as she would like to simply curl into a ball and lay there in pain she knew that she could not do that. She had to keep moving. She walked up the steps up the next platform of the fire escape and looked into the window of the apartment.

It was dark and there was no one inside, she briefly considered using the derringer but she knew she couldn't do that since she only had the two bullets in it so she let out a breath, wincing as it aggravated her ribs, and then drew her arm back and punched the window with as much force as she could muster which as quite a few people could attest too, was quite hard.

The glass shattered outwards and Ada grit her teeth as she felt glass slice into her hand and then pulled it back from the broken window, it was quite badly sliced up and there was a fairly large shard of glass sticking out of the back of her hand, using her undamaged hand she pinched the edge of the grass and with a grunt ripped the shard out and tossed it aside.

Her hand was now painted red and it was throbbing in pain but it did not matter, the worst part was over and she could handle pain. She used her shoulder to push aside the shards of glass that rested in the window and then reached in and opened the latch and pulled the window up and crawled inside.

Going in on her stomach killed and falling to the floor didn't help either but she was inside, she got to her feet again and briefly glanced around the apartment, it certainly wasn't a bad looking apartment by any means though whoever lived here couldn't be as well as some if there apartment's only view was of the fire escape.

Still they would be able to replace a window easily enough.

Ada walked over to the door and broke it open with one solid kick to the frame, she stepped out of the room and as quickly as she was able to at the moment hurried down the hall to the elevator she spied, normally she would always take the stairs but give,n how she was feeling at the moment it could take her hours walk down a stairwell.

She hit the button and held her middle and leaned against the wall as she waited for the elevator to arrive, once it did she stepped and hit the button for the ground floor. As the elevator descended had some time to think and she wondered if she should find Leon, most likely by now he would've seen the news report and he would recognise her without any trouble.

But as soon as she thought of going to him she dismissed the idea, the people who were after her would know to go to Leon first and if her suspicions about him being watched were correct then they would knew the moment she turned up and she didn't want to put him in any direct danger if she could help it.

With a ping the elevator doors opened to the ground floor and Ada stepped out of the elevator, keeping her head low but did not put it down all the way as that would just look more suspicious, thankfully there was only one person in the building's lobby, a man behind a desk and he was looking down at a newspaper and by the time he looked up Ada was already walking outside.

By now the sun had completely set and the entire street was cast in darkness aside from the lights of the buildings and the street lights, it was still raining and it didn't seem to be dying down, if anything the rain was only getting heavier and in the quiet of the street the low rumble of thunder seemed to be right above. Due to the dark and the heavy rain Ada realised that she was completely own, the entire city would be indoors and the only sign of life was the occasional car.

She needed to find a place to stay so she could rest and heal, a sudden idea popped into her head and she frowned as she thought about it, that was an awful idea but at the moment it was also the only one that she actually had.

He was in DC and no one knew about his connection to her and at the moment he was her only chance but at the same time the last time they spoke it had...not ended well, to say the very least.

But in all honesty, what choice did she have?

With a heavy sigh Ada picked up the pace of her walk, he lived in DC but he was a still quite far away from her.

As Ada walking down the dark streets she suddenly stopped, she was certain at that exact moment she heard something over the steady fall of rain that was not thunder, she closed her eyes and listened for a few moments, she could hear the rain falling, she could hear the sound of it popping against the sidewalk, she could hear the sound of thunder and underneath all of that she could hear a sound that was unmistakable to hear a sent a jolt of fear up her spine.

Footsteps.

She spun on her feet, ignoring the pain, and peered into the darkness. She couldn't see anything but just like earlier in the park that didn't prove anything and she knew that she wasn't imagining anything, she had heard footsteps. There was someone following her.

The metal of derringer pressing against the inside of her wrist suddenly felt a great deal more comforting as she turned around and hurried ahead, going as fast as she possibly could given her current state and not wanting a broken rib to pierce a lung or a kidney, she supposed in some ways it was a little fitting, if anyone was ever going to kill Ada Wong then it was going to be Ada Wong herself.

After a few more minutes of half walking, half stumbling down the street Ada stopped when she realised that she could no long hear anyone following her, the rain was starting to lessen from a heavy lashing to simply a steady downpour and the thunder sounded further and further away and she was certain of it, the footsteps were gone.

And then a hand came out of nowhere and clamped around her mouth, before she could scream a thick arm clamped around her waist and pulled her into an alleyway, she tried to break the hold but it was strong and the hold around her waist was causing so much pain that for a moment that she thought that she might be ill.

Suddenly there were lips at her ear and words soaked in a Russian accent were being hissed into it. "I am sorry my dear, I am afraid that you have certainly upset someone and they have decided that you can go no further, I truly do regret this but...money is money no matter the work." And suddenly she could feel cold steel against her neck.

Ada quickly slammed her back and it collided with the man's nose and he dropped the knife while cursing and letting go of her as he stumbled back, Ada let the derringer slip free from her sleeve and spun around to point at the man and her lips pulled into a tight frown.

The man was a giant compared to Ada, he was at least six and a half feet tall and he was bald and built like a brick house, his nose was broken and Ada's lips twitched as had to fight herself to stop from smiling, broke two noses in one day in one hour, that was a personal best.

The man's eyes opened and his eyes were full of hate but that quickly faded away as soon as he saw Ada pointing the small pistol being pointed at his chest, he slowly put his hands up over his head. "Easy my dear, don't do anything that you are going to regret later."

"Oh, one of us is going to regret me shooting you but it isn't going to be me." Ada quipped as she kept the gun trained on his chest, it was the biggest target after all.

To her surprise the man laughed loudly, a full body chuckle that made him shake. "You are a very funny woman, I am surprised. I do not know many funny women."

"I'm sorry to hear you keep such unpleasant company, now. Who are your employers, what do they want with me? What did I ever do to them?" Ada asked.

"I do not know." The Russian replied with a shrug.

"Don't lie to me, I am really not in the mood for it. What do your employers want with me, what I have done to them and why are they playing games with me!?" Ada shouted, she mentally chided herself for loosing her cool but she wasn't in the best mood at the moment.

"If I knew Miss then I would tell you, I do not work for anyone. I am freelance. A woman came to the hotel where I was staying and showed me a picture of you and offered me a large deal of money, she wanted you dead and that is all that I know." The spoke and Ada frowned.

"What woman? What did she look like?" Ada asked.

The man opened his mouth but he never got to say a word as a loud gunshot sounded out and his head snapped backwards, blood and brain matter painting the walls of the alley. Ada's eyes widened and she ducked behind s large dumpster.

She held her breath for a few moments and then poked her head out from behind the dumpster, opposite the alley was a small office building and a sniper would have a perfect vantage point of the alley.

But there was no sniper on the building now, there was no one up there. It didn't make any sense, why take out another assassin? Was it competition, had whoever was behind this stupid game put out an open contract on her? No, that didn't make any sense. They had their own assassins, that woman in the hotel would rather die than betray her employers and the Russian man had said he'd been specifically approached by a woman.

That meant there was at least one group and one individual that wanted her dead, but there was something else that didn't add up, something that she didn't know how to feel about.

Why did the sniper kill the Russian? Did it really matter who killed her so long as she was dead and on top of that, why didn't they even try to take a shot at her after they killed the Russian or why didn't they shoot her first? The only answer she could come up with was...

The sniper didn't want her dead. They wasn't trying to kill her, they were trying to save her.

Ada was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of sirens, either someone had called the police after hearing gunshots or the police had come to look for her after being called from the dinner and they heard the gunshots and assumed that it had something to do with her.

Either way, she had to get out of her.

With a groan Ada pushed herself to her feet and began to walk, right now it didn't matter that she was dealing with factions who either wanted her dead or wanted something from her.

All that mattered was getting somewhere safe.

End of Chapter Four

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 **Please follow, favourite and review if you enjoyed and if you did then please know that constructive criticism is more than welcome.**


	5. Chapter 5

Crimson Butterfly

Chapter Five

The rain had started up once again and was pounding heavily against the ground, Ada wasn't sure if she was thankful for the heavy downpour for obscuring her from vision and masking the sound of her footsteps or frustrated by the fact it had started up once again and had caused her to become drenched.

It was bad enough being freezing cold and wet but being in agony with a broken rib was really starting to irritate her, it was as if the entire world had decided it hated her. She could understand that, there were plenty of days when Ada hated herself but right now she simply wanted the universe to quit it for the moment so she could at least catch her breath and could think about what her next move would be.

At the back of her mind there were still whispers of going to Leon but she knew she couldn't do that, thankfully there were other people in DC that she could go to, the problem was that whoever was after her seemed to know a great deal about her, more than anyone else normally did and it unnerved.

All of her usual contacts were probably being too closely watched for her to go to them and there was no way she could get out of DC with the state that she was in at the moment, she was badly hurt. The only good news she could think of at the moment was that she probably didn't have a broken rib and if she did then it probably hadn't pierced anything yet.

Still, relying on luck had never sat well with her. Luck could desert you at any time, it was a fickle ally at the best of times and her life could never be described as the best of times. But, it looked like it was starting to pick up. At least for the moment at any rate.

Through the rain and off in the distance the red light of the large sign of the roof bar was caught by the rain drops, it bathed Ada in crimson and it comforted her slightly as she remembered all the times she had seen this sign in the past. It's glow comforted her even now.

McCoy's was a dive, that was the only would that could accurately describe it. They were certainly worse bars in the country but it was almost certainly the worst in D.C, it was small and cramped and looked filthy but it had been open for over fourty years and it still did good business, it hadn't been shut yet at the very least.

They were only two vehicles in the small parking lot outside the bar, a large eighteen wheeler truck and a motorcycle. The door of the bar opened and a heavy set man with baseball cap strode out and made his way into his truck, by the time it took him to pull out and drive off the door had opened again and a woman in a leather jacket who sort of reminded her of the Redfield girl strolled out and drove off as well.

It was near closing time, assuming that he hadn't changed the times. Ada hurried through the rain as quickly as she dared too and reached the door, looking through the window she could see him in the process of closing up, he was facing the shelves behind the bar so he wasn't looking at the door.

She pushed open the door and the bell above it gave off a soft tinkle. "We're closed." His gruff voice sounded out, despite all these years living in America his Scottish brogue had not faded.

"Even to family?" Ada asked.

The man stiffened and for a moment didn't move, he grabbed the shotgun from behind the bar as he spun around to face her and he brought it halfway up but by that time Ada had already brought her derringer up and pointed it at his face. "Is that really the welcome I get after all this time Uncle? I'm hurt."

"Get out!" Ian McCoy roared as he kept the shotgun pointed at her chest, if he was scared of the fact that she had a gun pointed directly at his chest then he did not show it. "How fucking dare you walk back in here?! Like nothing had happened! I am fucking done with you, I made that clear!"

"We're family, Uncle. We're never done. You taught me that." Ada said as she lowered her gun slightly in a show of goodwill, it was something of a risk as to say they had left things on bad terms the last time they had spoken was a colossal understatement but at the same time she didn't, she couldn't, believe that he would actually shot her. Not him.

Her faith was rewarded, Ian let out a bone-weary sigh and placed the shotgun down on the bar. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in close to twenty-five years, why tonight girl?"

"You been watching the news?"

Her question received a scowl in reply. "I thought that might be you, but I couldn't be sure. What do you want?"

Ada was quiet for a moment as she thought on that, she hadn't actually gotten this far in her planning. Most of her best case scenarios ended with her getting thrown out on her ass. This was much better outcome. "A drink would do."

"Got money?"

"Not going to give me a free one, old times sake?"

"Don't push it, girl."

Ada pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it over to him, Ian poured some whisky into a shot glass and Ada gulped it down in one. It was hardly the best whisky she had ever tasted but it help sooth the ache in her ribs and the burning at the back and bottom of her throat was almost comforting.

"Why are you here?" Ian asked again as he filled the shot glass again. "Obviously your in trouble, but there must be dozens of people in the city alone you could go too, why me? Out of all of them?"

"Because of all the people in this world I could go too, you would be the absolute last. No one knows about you, I've made certain of that." Ada swallowed the whisky down again and poured herself a double. "Always do what no one expects, that's always been my motto."

"Always keep your enemies confused, if they don't know who you are and what you want then they can't stop you."

"I like that, Machiavelli?"

"Game of thrones."

"What's that?"

"Do you not watch TV?"

"I don't have the time."

Ian let out a bitter laugh at that and poured himself a double and swallowed it down. "Not much has changed there then, you always were rushing about. Never stopped to think about anything, about anyone but yourself. You've always been so selfish."

"And here we go with the preaching, cause you were always such a saint weren't you? Never did anything wrong in your life." Ada couldn't stop the anger, she always prided herself on never letting her emotions get in the way of her judgement but being here had ripped into old wounds.

It was not like she had been great at it before hand, a rookie cop with beautiful blue eyes who wanted to play the hero had been the first nail in the coffin of her legendary control.

"I'm a better person than you, I know that. If you parents could-

"Don't. You. Dare." Ada growled as stood up too quickly out of her chair and her ribs screamed in protest, but the pain was nothing compared to the burning rage that she felt inside of her. "You do not get to bring them into this, this has nothing to do with them do you hear me? Do...do you-"

Ada let out a low groan as the pain got so intense that it blinded her, for a moment all she could see was white that was framed by red. She could taste bile at the back of her throat and for a moment she wasn't sure if she was going to be sick or pass out first, she hoped that she would be sick because that would at least reduce her chances of chocking while she was out.

But suddenly strong arms encircled, she had been much smaller the last time this pair of arms did so and there was a soothing whisper in her ear. "Calm down lass, it's alright. I'm here, take a deep breath and count backwards from ten."

For the first time in a long time Ada Wong did as she was told and took a deep breath and counted backwards in her head, by the time she was halfway done her vision had returned and when she had finished the urge to vomit had gone as well. With a rough swallow she stood back up to her full height. "Thank you."

Ian didn't say anything but he did help her to sit down. "What was that, what is wrong with you?"

"I think I might have broken some ribs." Ada said as she closed her eyes and focused on the pain, it was less a burning now and more a sharp stabbing. "Uncle, I need your help."

For a moment there was silence, and Ada would almost welcomed a storm of gunfire because it had to be less nerve-wracking than this, eventually her uncle let out a heavy sigh and he shook his head. "Shit girl, I ain't a fucking doctor. If you've got broken ribs then you need to go to a damn hospital."

"I can't risk it, there are people after me. I made sure I wasn't followed." Ada swallowed roughly and took his hand, they had always been big hands, when she was a little girl they had dwarfed hers and even though she had grown since then not much had changed. "Please."

Ian stared at her before he stood up, turned around, and walked to the room behind the bar. He left her sitting there for a while and for a few moments Ada wondered if he might actually be calling the police but he came back out with a large roll of gauze. He grabbed the bottle of whisky, shook it to judge how much was left inside it, and then came back to the table to set his bounty on top of it.

"I am not a doctor, don't go expecting anything like Morphine. I'm not even going to give you any aspirin, you've had whisky I am not walking up in the morning to find you dead in your bed. I've got enough problems without having to get rid of a body. Whisky is the best painkiller there is."

"Amen to that."

Ian nodded and she was sure that for just a moment she could see a smile play on his lips, he picked up the roll of gauze. "Stand up, I am going to have to make this really tight to make sure that they don't move too much. Tell me if you can't breath."

As he finished wrapping the gauze around her middle Ada had to assume that this must be what a corset felt like and she was never more glad that she was born after that horror was long gone. She took a swing of whisky and only spoke up when she felt it becoming harder to breath but told him that she could bear it like this.

It had to be as tight as she could take it.

"Right then Lassie, let's get you too bed." Ian supported her into the back room and up the stairs, he lead her into a bedroom and with a surge of realization she realised that this was her bedroom. The wallpaper had been changed from the butterflies it had been to plain brown and everything she hadn't took with her was gone but it was her room.

It was odd to see it like this.

Ian helped her into the bed and placed the bottle on the bedside table, it was half full and it would get her through the night. Just as Ian was about to leave the room Ada called out to him. "Uncle...thank you."

Her uncle stood in the doorway, the light of the hall made him just a shadowy outline but his voice was clear as day and Ada could tell that this had affected him more than he would ever admit. "I loved your Da, I loved your Ma, they were more my brother and sister than anyone else. They were my family. I'm doing this for them."

And with that he left and shut the door and Ada was left in the dark, she rested her head on the pillow of the bed and shut her eyes. Falling asleep to the sound of the rain hitting the window.

End of Chapter Five.

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 **Well, this is a chapter I was looking forward to for a while because we start to get a tiny bit of background about Ada, don't worry. They'll be some answers, and more questions, further down the road. For now I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I would love it if you could follow, favourite and leave a review.**

 **Love,**

 **Doctorwhofan12345**


	6. Chapter 6

Crimson Butterfly

Chapter Six

Ada was woken by the smell of frying bacon and she had forgotten how many times she had been woken by that scent when she was in this bed, more times than she could count she imagined. Her stomach commanded her to go and get it but her body was telling her to sink back into the bed and to just sleep the rest of the day, the rest of the week away.

But then she remembered that her uncle was only going to let her stay the night and she hadn't eaten anything beside a few bites of cherry pie back at that diner and that felt like it was an entirely different life. Ada pushed the covers off of her and sat up in bed, wincing as her ribs complained at the movement. Still, while there was pain it was nothing compared to what it had been so she stood up with a grunt, ignoring the twinge in her side as she did so. She had suffered a lot worse than this.

She exited her room and began to make her way down to the kitchen which was at the back of the bar, she found her uncle standing in front of the stove cooking the bacon as well as some eggs and the sight of it brought back a great deal of nostalgia for her, how many times had she woken up in that bed as a girl and come down in to the kitchen to find her uncle making breakfast.

She had missed this, she couldn't deny it. It had certainly been a long time since she had woken up to a cooked breakfast, being a spy wasn't what it seemed like in the movies with fast cars and glamorous apartments and beautiful dresses and handsome men and making daring escapes during gunfights, well, it wasn't like that all of the time at any rate. More often than not it was about waking up in some crappy run down apartment and grabbing an apple and crappy cup of coffee for breakfast and keeping head of whoever she had pissed off that week until she had given them the slip.

There were times when she wondered if there wasn't something else she could be doing, Ada was smart and she didn't think that in an egotistical fashion she was smart, a genius and that was just a fact and in her line of employment she had picked up a great many skills on top of the skills she already possessed. She sometimes thought that she would do well with government work but then she remembered she wasn't actually a citizen, of any country in fact. She always tried to stay out of any databases or systems, it made her harder to track down which was useful in her line of work.

It was foolish enough to think that she could ever stop doing this, she had made her choice a very long time ago. She sat down at the table that was in the middle of the kitchen, it was the same old table that been here when she was a girl as she saw that her initials were still where she had carved them into the skin of the table, she reached out with her fingers and brushed the carving. It had been so long since she had remembered her real name and here, in this little in the kitchen in the back room of a bar was proof that the old her had existed, probably the last piece in the world.

She honestly didn't know how to feel about that, she knew that there would be reminders of her childhood. She had spent almost all of her childhood in this bar, most of the time she had been playing upstairs or reading one of her parents science textbooks which were meant for collage students but she had always found them more interesting then Cinderlla or Snow White or she would help whoever's turn it was to make dinner.

Looking back Ada supposed they were actually quite poor but it had never seemed that way to her, her stomach had never gone empty and she had gotten plenty of things for her birthday and Christmas and she had never been unhappy or cold or unhappy with her life but as she looked back she realised that she only ever had one or two presents on her birthdays and never had any presents unless it was a holiday or a birthday and there were plenty of nights when she couldn't sleep because her parents and her uncle were talking loudly about things that she didn't understand at the time but now understood all too well.

Well, in truth she understood bills but in truth they were never much of a problem for her, she never normally stayed in one place long enough to worry about rent and her jobs paid well, very well as only such high risk jobs would. As a kid she didn't know anything about any of this, she was a different person then. Everything about her was different.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a plate being placed on the table and Ada pulled her hand away from the carving and turned her head to look at her uncle as he placed a cup of coffee next to the plate. "How are you doing?" He asked awkwardly and Ada didn't know how to feel about that as he never used to sound so awkward with her.

It had been a long time, she didn't deny that at all. And when she had left it certainly had not been on the best of terms, he hadn't wanted her to go but she felt she had to go. She didn't have any other choice, she didn't want to drudge the past back up but recently it seemed as if everything from her past had been brought back up to the surface. She shouldn't have come here but at the time it seemed like the best option, though she had been delirious with pain at the time.

"I'm fine, thanks for letting me stay the night. And for making me breakfast, I really need this." That wasn't a lie, the eggs and bacon on the plate looked like it was the most precious thing in the world to her at the moment and the coffee looked like it was truly liquid gold. She picked up the cup and took a sip of the liquid, it tasted like someone had literally liquefied shit and poured it into the mug but it had always tasted like that, if anything it only made her love it more as it only made it taste more like home.

The bacon was too salty and the eggs were too runny and only done enough that she would avoid getting salmonella but again, it felt more like home and if she closed her eyes and tried very hard then she could almost hear her mother yelling at her father and her uncle for something or other but there was never any real heat, any real anger.

She tried to picture her mother's face but all she could picture was long dark hair and kind eyes, she tried to picture her father's face but all that came to her mind was dark hair and black stubble which had grown when he spent far too many nights working and slept the rest of the day away. Ada realised at that moment that she still missed them, she had never really stopped of course but it had been so long since she had even thought about them.

"It isn't a problem, like I said, I was doing it for your ma and your pa. I owe them, if you want to stay here for more than a day then that's fine. I realised last night that it would probably take more than one night for your ribs to set." Her uncle said as he sat down in the chair across from her, the chair let out a squeak of protest as it's old wooden frame had to try and support the weight. Her uncle wasn't overweight but he was a broad man and the chairs were tiny, plus while he wasn't overweight he had been letting himself go slightly due to staying in the same place for the past two or so decades.

Still, the wood was strong and held up fine once he had settled. "You honestly don't have to do that." Ada said as she stabbed a piece of bacon with her fork rather than making any attempt to put it in her mouth as she suddenly found that she wasn't as hungry as she had been. "I know you didn't want me here, in all honestly I think I shouldn't have come. I'll clear out here by the end of the day."

"Shit girl, it wasn't like I was going to threw you out in the cold on your ass. You may be a badass but you aren't going to be able to do any of you super spy crap with a few broken ribs rattling around inside of you." Ada had always hated admitting that her uncle was right but at least this time she had too, Ada was tougher than she looked and she healed quickly and she felt a lot better than she did but there was still a deep ache of pain in her stomach and she was still wanted by the cops and with the pain she was in she wouldn't be able to keep on the move. She needed a place to lay low for a few days.

"Thanks, I owe you one." Ada said as she finally popped the piece of bacon into her mouth and chewed on it, her tongue being coated with salt.

"I think you owe me a little more than one at this point." Despite his words there was no heat in them and the two of them entered a comfortable silence as they both focused on eating their breakfast, for a few blissful moments it was as if nothing had changed at all and Ada was a teenager again, having breakfast before she got ready to go to school.

The breakfast was finished soon enough and Ian took both of the plates over to the sink, putting them inside to soak. Ada would've volunteered to do it but as she straightened in her chair her ribs let out a low throb of pain and Ada had to shut her eyes and grit her teeth. She wished that she still had some of the whisky left from last night but she had drunken all of it, she needed it of course as there had been moments when her chest had burned and she couldn't breath through the pain of it and only draining a quarter of the bottle seemed to stop it.

It was becoming more and more obvious that she needed stronger pain relief, her chest was bound tight by the bandages and she knew that this was only part of the healing process but it was killing her, morphine was what was needed now. The problem was she couldn't go to a hospital as half of the city would be on the lookout for her and she couldn't break in and steal what she needed as her uncle had pointed out she was hardly at her best at the moment.

She would just have to grit her teeth and bare it.

A loud thud made her open her eyes and she saw that another bottle of whisky had been placed in front of her, it had clearly been held in some place cold as the glass was foggy and water droplets were rolling down the shiny surface. This wasn't the same sort of whiskey that she had last night either, she could tell just by looking at it that there had been some money spent on this. A lot of money.

Ada was quite certain that it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her entire life.

"I bet your still in a shitton of pain, you're going to need this. And this is good stuff, so you'd better appreciate it." Ada did appreciate it, she appreciated it a lot. She curled her fingers around the neck of the bottle and the coldness of the bottle burned her skin but it was a pleasant burn and Ada popped the top open with her nail and she took a swing of it, the taste was more subtle and it went down much smoother and as the drink made it's way into her stomach it seemed to sooth the pain almost instantly.

"All right, I think that's enough." Ian said and Ada agreed, she didn't want to drink to much off it and so she put the bottle back on the table. "I've only got one of those, if you ask me then you should head back to bed. You need to lie as still as possible."

"I'll sleep later, right now there are other things that need to get taken care of. Do you have a laptop?"

"What?"

"A laptop, it's a little computer that fits in your lap."

"I know what a laptop is girl! Shit, careful you aren't too old for a slap." Ian grumbled as he turned and walked over to the stairs and headed upstairs, leaving Ada alone. When her ribs began to burn again Ada had to take a deep breath and dig her nails into her hands to stop herself from reaching out and picking up the bottle again. She had to be careful as this could be a slippery slope, she didn't stay at the top of her game by being a drunk.

Before too long, thankfully, Ian came back with a laptop that looked to be the size of a briefcase. Ada tried her best to hide a frown as it looked like something out of the mid nineties, and that was an optimistic guess. Still, beggars couldn't be chooses and so long as it could still connect to the internet then she had what she needed.

She thanked her uncle as he placed the laptop in front of her, she hit the button as it turned on Ada couldn't manage to hide her frown as the laptop made more noise than an airplane turbine as it turned on. Still, turn on it did and after a few minutes of staring at a black screen it flicked on to the computer desktop, but the sight of her uncle's wallpaper made her stop.

The wallpaper was an old picture, it had been in colour but age had yellowed it and there were three people in the picture, her mother, her father and her uncle, all of them smiling at the camera as they stood in a large laboratory. It had been so long since she had seen her parents faces, it was strange to see them. They didn't seem real.

Ada heard that it was common for daughters to look more like their mothers than their fathers but it was odd how much she did look like her mother, they had the same eyes, the same nose, the same lips. Their hair was the same colour although it was slightly hard to tell due to the colours of the photograph having faded, the only difference in their looks was that her mother's hair fell past her shoulders and she seemed to be a little shorter than her.

Her father was taller than her mother but wasn't as tall as her uncle, he was smiling brightly and Ada noticed that his two front teeth seemed a little crooked. Dark stubble was dusting his face and his eyes were brown. Her uncle was standing next to him and Ada had to admit it was a funny sight, her father who was only just over five feet and her mother who just reached five feet standing next to her uncle who was over six and half feet tall. It made her lips twitch into something that could resemble a smile.

A weary sigh made Ada turn her head to look at her uncle, he wasn't a young man but as he looked at the picture he seemed to have aged more and his eyes were wet, all though Ada supposed that it could just be the light. "I'd forgotten all about this, I guess this is why I put this old thing away."

"Was this from before?" Ada asked, trying her hardest to sound as gentle as possible because as much as her parents were a hard thing for her to talk about she knew the same was true for Ian. "You never told me what it was that you were all working on."

"No, we didn't and I am going to tell you. We got away from all of that, we left it in the past. Your parents didn't want to dwell on it and they didn't want you to know anything about it. Everyone involved in that project aside from me is dead, it's dead and buried and I don't see the point in digging it back up!" Her uncle's voice never raised but Ada didn't need to hear him shout to know that he was upset, Ada wanted to know what it was but she knew better than to push. The last time she had tried to push for answers, all that had lead to was her leaving.

With a sigh of her own she opened the internet browser and began to type, hacking into DC's CCTV system was hardly a difficult task, you would think that the political capital of the world would have tighter security but most private corporations had harder stuff to crack, most likely because they could afford to spring for the best stuff. Before long, she was in.

It didn't take her long to find what she needed, the CCTV system for the office building across from the alley where she had been attacked by the burly Russian man, that sniper had saved her life. If she could find whoever the sniper was then she might have a lead as to how all of this tied together, the problem was that there was nothing for her to find as when she tried to access the buildings archival recordings she found that all the recordings for the past month had been deleted.

She had to admit, she was impressed. The sniper had clearly thought that someone would look through the recordings to find them and had taken steps to delete them, not only did they delete the recording that they were featured on but they also deleted all the recordings as a ground so anyone who tried to restore them would have a lot more work to do.

Still, she may have been impressed but it did make her job a lot more difficult. She should be able to recover the footage but it would take some time and she hated having to wait that long for a lead, not when it was something like this.

She could try contacting Leon and see what he knew but for all she knew he could have found out nothing, with a sigh she began to write the recovery programme which would recover the footage. She hit the enter key when she was finished and watched as a progress bar popped up, for now all she could do was wait. She stood from her chair and picked up the bottle of whisky and began to make her way to the stairs.

"Girl, whatever happens. I don't want this being tracked back here, I've got a good life here and I've done more than enough running." Her uncle's voice cut through the air but Ada didn't turn around to look at him, chances were that it could be traced back but she didn't say that. All she could hope for was that she had a lead and she could leave before it became a problem.

"Understood, wake me when it's done." And with those final words Ada climbed to the top of the stairs and went back into her room, crawling into bed as she did so.

Now all she could do was wait.

End of Chapter Six.

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 **Welp, here's a new chapter for you all. If you could all please leave a review, favourite and follow then that would be a big help to me and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Love,**

 **Doctorwhofan12345.**


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